The first time Karen got on Ancestry.com, she sat in the same chair for five hours. It's like porn for the historically-inclined.

Her Puritan roots are shocking if you know her (hello, hotness). But she's more than a little proud that her relative, Giles Corey, was crushed to death in the Salem Witch Trials. Since I used to teach The Crucible to high schoolers, I find this mental jag a little hard to comprehend. The old man that got crushed to death in Arthur Miller's play was actually related to my wife? Why couldn't it be the crazy girl who started all the lies? She's way cooler. But I guess old crushed guy is better than nothing.

The latest thing they gave was a custom-made privacy fence for our boxy air conditioner exhaust unit (you know, that ugly thing sitting outside our house in the landscaping). Kevin was making it for their house, but it ended up not working for them. Fortunately, it fit our house to the inch. It's all shiny and pretty and made of cedar lattice. Secretly, I think he made it just for us.

When I mentioned to him last month that we were buying a snowblower, his eyes brightened. He wanted in. We'd go halfsies. No more shoveling ourselves out of the wet mess of winter.

After using it last week to dig out from the 30 inches of snow we were buried in, Kevin told me I got the Nobel Prize for Best Neighbor Ever. He, of course, forgot about all the things they had done for us. And also that he and Tara were paying half for snowblower.

So we made them pie.

This month, we decided to make a lot of pie. Originally we wanted to do a pie every day. 31 pies sounded like a great idea. Quite a few people have done something like it, including Evan Kleiman from KCRW’s Good Food (I cook while listening to the podcast every week). But then we realized we’d never do 31, at least not this year. Or this life. So we’re going to make and post as many as we can. Right now, it looks like we’re going to get close to 15. Which is still a lot of pie.

The pie we made for Kevin and Tara was a lemon curd cream icebox pie with a no-bake vanilla wafer crumb crust based upon a recipe from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook. I like Magnolia’s cupcakes just fine, but their other baked goods were always far more tempting when we visited. Banana pudding. Seven-layer bars. Some kind of crazy peanut butter bar. All really great and worth the wait in/on line.

So this lemon curd cream pie seemed perfect to make us forget all the snow surrounding us outside. A giant blast of sunshine in the middle of nearly three feet of snow. And honestly, this pie is really just lemon curd, cut with whipped cream. That is about as close to inappropriate as you can get with a pie. This is rich and happy and tart, and believe it or not, not too sweet.

Lemon curd isn’t hard to make. Can you stir? Great. Then you can make lemon curd. There’s something therapeutic about stirring a pot for 20 minutes while the curd thickens, especially when the kids are refusing their naps for the day.

Make this pie over two days. Maybe even three days. Make the curd on day 1, and let it refrigerate overnight. Then, the rest of the recipe is a breeze. Blitz some vanilla wafers, smash them together with some really soft butter. Press them into a pie plate. Freeze. Meanwhile, whip up some heavy cream into stiff peaks. Fold the chilled lemon curd into the whipped cream. Pour into the frozen crust. Throw it all into the refrigerator for a few hours. Eat.

Variations: I’d gladly try this with limes or Meyer lemons. Tangerines would be crazy good. Anything tart and bright.

So, here’s to really good neighbors. And to snowblowers. And pie.

Recipe | Lemon Cream Icebox Pie from Magnolia BakeryLemon Curd

12 egg yolks, room temperature (This is only a lot if you're eating the pie by yourself. Calm down.)

3 T grated lemon zest

1 c fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 c sugar

1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, diced up smallish

Dump everything except the butter into a medium sauce pan. Whisk until very well combined. Turn the heat on to medium. Stir for 20 minutes. It will be thick and bubbly. Remove from heat, and piece by piece, stir in the butter until it disappears. This will be a slight challenge toward the end as the curd cools. Be brave and stir on. Throw it into a container and refrigerate overnight.

Crust

1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, super soft

2 c vanilla wafer crumbs (about 3/4 of a box of vanilla wafers blitzed into crumbs in a food processor)

Put butter in large bowl. Dump in crumbs. Mix thoroughly. Use a pastry blender if you have it. A fork will do. Once combined, place into a buttered 9-inch pie dish. Press the crumbs firmly into the pie plate to make the crust. Place it in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. Or longer. Your call.

Filling

1 1/2 c heavy cream

1 1/2 c lemon curd (from above)

Whip heavy cream in a large bowl until you get stiff peaks. Fold in the lemon curd. Be gentle. Good work. Now pull out that frozen pie crust. Dump the filling into the crust. Smooth it. Let it refrigerate for a long while. 4 hours if you can wait. Garnish with some sort of berry. Or whipped cream, because this hasn't quite been pushed over the edge of dairy and eggy bliss.

The recipe comes from the Baked cookbook. The recipes are the ones used in their bakery. We love that book. Our friend, Tod, bought it after we made him pumpkin whoopie pies from it. He loved them that much. I think he had a desire to have whoopie pies on demand. Now he can't stop baking from it. It's like The Red Shoes but with flour-based goodness.

Karen and I took the kids to Brooklyn this weekend to see the cherry blossoms. We stopped at the Baked shop in Red Hook before we saw the flowers. The kids ate monster cookies. I ate scones. Karen ate brownies. Pretty much the best breakfast ever. When we got home, we started looking at Red Hook real estate. That's how much we love them.

The recipe follows. Fair warning - we will feature a couple of more recipes from Baked in the next few weeks. I'd suggest you buy a copy and bake along.

baked’s tuscaloosa tollhouse pie

Pie dough (you live a life full of choices. Pie crust is another one. Decide for yourself what crust you want to make. I'm not the boss of you.)

Do your pie crust. You know I have issues making them. Karen does not. Do what makes you happy. Once you've got it in the pan, freeze it while you make the filling.

Get the oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk the flour and sugars together. Put them in the corner and give them a pep talk. They're going to make something awesome.

With a whisk attachment, beat eggs on high speed until foamy. Maybe three minutes. Eject the whisk. Put the paddle attachment on the mixer. Turn it on low. Slowly, add the flour and sugars. Mixer on high for two minutes. Scrape down and throw in the butter. Beat on high until combined. Add the whiskey if you want it. Beat on high for one minute.

Use a spatula and fold in the walnuts and half of the chocolate. Note that you're not putting in all the chocolate. Yet.

Pour the filling into the pie shell. Throw on the rest of the chocolate. Bake for 25 minutes. The edges are going to be done before the filling, so fold up some foil so it looks like a belt, and then cover the edges of crust. You want to shield the crust from the heat, but don't shield the filling. Bake for another 25 minutes or so. It's done when a knife stuck in it comes out clean.

Cool completely on a rack (who are we kidding? You should wait a couple of minutes and then dig in) before serving. Reheat for a few seconds in the microwave if it cools completely before you get a chance to devour it.